


Lost Order

by alex_kade



Series: Monstas [5]
Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst, Betrayal, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Forgiveness, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Relationships, Vampires, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 08:13:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7040377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alex_kade/pseuds/alex_kade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Shownu is not himself, neither is anybody else. As his past finally catches up to him, it nearly drives the entire clan apart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost Order

**Author's Note:**

> Yikes. This one's a long one! There are some disturbing things happening all up in here. For the most part, this is not a happy, fluffy fic. Vampires are sort of fucked up in the head, and that definitely comes to light in this fic. On the plus side, you get a little more descriptive details about their home, their characters, and some more of Shownu's mysterious backstory. Enjoy!

His eyes.

They had seen their Grand Sire’s eyes grow darker than tar on a moonless night, becoming gaping holes into a temporarily soulness mind, but they had never seen them glow before. They didn’t even think color was possible in a vampire with naturally dark eyes; yet there Shownu was, caught in a rage in front of them all, a shadowed amber hue gleaming within the rim of his otherwise black irises.

“Back! Get back!” Wonho coughed from where he was still half-lying in the dirt, and waved his arm frantically at Minhyuk.

The blonde stopped, looking torn between wanting to obey his sire’s command and just wanting to latch onto Shownu in hopes that holding him would bring him back to himself. It wouldn’t work though; Wonho had already attempted that tactic and had wound up being tossed through the air like a mouse being thrown by a mountain lion. Kihyun had tried his ghosting technique for a slow approach, but Shownu had seen right through it and had considered the use of the bloodrite to be a threat. He had attacked first, leaving the much smaller vamp slumped in a heap against a nearby tree, conscious but too stunned to do anything more than just sit there.

“Don’t touch him,” Wonho stressed again as he pushed himself to his feet and limped a few cautious steps towards his protege. Shownu was watching both of them, his breaths coming out in heavy pants, every muscle in his body taut and ready to spring if one of them tried to come near him. At the moment he was moving like a cornered, rabid canine with no telling when he might lash out or at whom.

Minhyuk, thankfully, seemed to sense the same danger and remained rooted in place, concerned eyes shifting back and forth between the coven’s two eldest sires.

 _‘Wonho?’_ he questioned, the uncertainty and dismay clear in his thoughts. He was scared, scared of his own Grand Sire while also being scared _for_ him. They all were. With two of their kin down with serious injuries and a third caught in a nearly catatonic state-and that was _before_ Shownu had started attacking his own clan-they needed their leader now more than ever.

Wonho kept his eyes on his sire, wanting to be ready in case he made the slightest movement against Minhyuk, and instructed in a voice as calm as possible, “Step back. Slowly. Go around and get Kihyun. Take him back to your brothers. Okay?”

“But–”

“-Minhyuk! It’s not a discussion. Go.”

Wonho couldn’t remember a time when he was ever so grateful for his protege’s rare obedience as Minhyuk snapped his jaw shut and gave him a quick nod. Hands low and slightly out to his sides to present himself as less of a threat, Minhyuk careful began to move backwards and sideways, working his way in a wide arc through the trees until he could slowly squat down next to Kihyun. Shownu watched him the entire time, that honeyed gleam in his eyes flaring dangerously; Wonho watched Shownu just as diligently, ready to move in case his sire decided to attack.

“Shownu,” he called out gently as Minhyuk began to wrap his arm around Kihyun’s waist to help him to his feet.

Shownu’s head snapped around, his chest heaving as he zeroed in on his protege of nearly a century. There was no recognition in his eyes, only the threat of violence if Wonho dared to make a move towards him.

“Shownu. _Please_ ,” Wonho begged. “It’s over. It’s done. Come back to us. Come back to _me_. I need you. Your family needs you. Please come back to us.”

Nothing. There was nothing there in those amber eyes that resembled the gentle sire Wonho had known for all his years of vampiric life. Still, he kept trying, rambling out a litany of soft pleas that he prayed would reach Shownu’s ears, his heart breaking more and more with each useless second that passed.

Off to the side, Kihyun stumbled, his unsteady legs tripping up Minhyuk in the process. It was too much noisy movement too soon, too close, and Shownu reacted. Wonho was ready for it and launched himself at his sire, his faster speed proving to be a blessing and a curse as he put himself between Shownu and the two younger vampires, saving them but putting himself in the direct line of fire in the process.

It happened so quickly. One second he was standing, the next he was flat on his back with fangs sinking into his shoulder, fingernails burrowing into his arm and down into his side. There was a moment when he thought this was going to be it, that he was about to join the pile of so many mangled limbs that were spread around the forest floor, all that remained of the nomadic vampire tribe that had dared to ambush them so close to their own home. He was going to die, and it was going to be at the hands of the person who had left all that carnage in his attempts to protect them all in the first place.

Shownu’s teeth clenched down tighter before they were suddenly ripped away, tearing off a large strip of Wonho’s flesh in the process, his nails leaving long furrows across Wonho’s skin as he was forcefully dragged off his protege. Wonho gasped in agony but did his best to swallow it down as the worrisome sounds of scuffling feet and angry snarls filtered into his ears from several feet away. He forced himself to roll onto his side so he could get a better view of what was going on, and was mortified to see his other five kin squaring off against their Grand Sire, most of them not in nearly good enough shape to even be on their feet.

“Stop. Stop!” Wonho croaked as Shownu flipped Minhyuk to the ground, but failed to do anything more as his attack was interrupted by Changkyun barrelling into his side, knocking him off balance. Shownu twisted around to grab for him, but Jooheon intervened, using his one functional arm to clutch onto his sire’s wrist. Kihyun slipped in to latch onto Shownu’s other arm, wavering on his feet as he did his best to help hold his sire still. The four of them stumbled around as Shownu tried to break free, and he very well might have had Minhyuk not taken advantage of his low point on the ground and scrambled to crawl behind Shownu’s legs, sending them all tumbling to the forest floor. Hyungwon, who looked barely able to stand as he waited patiently on the sidelines for his opportunity, limped forward and dropped heavily to the ground beside the struggling pile of his kin.

 _‘Don’t,’_ Wonho pleaded, but he knew Hyungwon wouldn’t listen, not when he was in his battle mode. Hyungwon was a born and bred soldier; he knew better than any of the rest of them what was required of him on the battlefield. If there was an enemy attacking them, there was no room for mercy. At the moment, Shownu was the enemy.

Without so much as a single flinch or flash of sympathy for his Grand Sire, Hyungwon drew back his fist and slammed it into Shownu’s face. Then did it again. And again. And again. What was more surprising was that the others were okay with it, that they continued to pin their beloved coven father to the ground as Hyungwon beat his face bloody. It was only when Shownu finally stopped growling and spitting like a wild hyena, finally stopped struggling against them, finally fell limp and unconscious that slowly, one by one, they began to peel themselves away from him.

Wonho dropped his head to the ground, quiet tears streaming down his face. He stayed that way, body trembling with physical and emotional pain as the others gradually made their way over to him. They either literally fell over, dropped to their knees, or gingerly knelt down beside him, tucking in close with their arms draped around him or their heads resting against his legs. They were crying too, every single one of them; he could feel their tears inside his heart even if they were all doing their best to keep them silent.

An entire clan was not supposed to turn against their Grand Sire. That wasn’t how this was supposed to work. They could challenge for the position of leadership in a one on one fight, but mutiny was not supposed to exist. They weren’t built for this.

Then again, a Grand Sire was also not supposed to turn so utterly against his own proteges. They didn’t even think it was possible with their brains so thoroughly wired to protect their children. There was supposed to have been a switch that made him hesitate to throw Kihyun against a tree, from trying to target an attack against Jooheon’s broken arm, from so readily sinking his fangs into Wonho with the intent to kill. Something had happened inside of him that had made him unable to recognize his own bloodkin, to decipher the difference between friend and foe. They just couldn’t fathom what.

What was worse was that clearly the potential for this to happen had been inside him the _entire time_ , and Wonho knew now that Shownu had been aware of it; it was why he would disappear for days on end. This was why, every time when Wonho begged to follow him, Shownu would shoot him down with an anger rarely seen in the Grand Sire. Wonho had thought Shownu’s fear of hurting them had been an overprotective exaggeration of his dark moods. Now he was seeing what a fool he’d been for not taking his sire’s words to heart. Shownu had said he had a true devil inside of him, and now they had all seen it with their own eyes; it was something their own demons couldn’t even come close to touching.

“Wonho,” Minhyuk muttered against his ear after they’d lain there for what seemed like hours, but had probably only been a matter of minutes. “We need to go home. We need to take care of each other.”

Wonho took another minute to calm himself, to wipe his face free of his tears before he reached up to squeeze Minhyuk’s hand. He was right, this wasn’t the time to break down when the others needed tending to; the fact that the normally impulsive Minhyuk was being the rational one served as just another sign of how twisted the day had become.

“Okay,” Wonho breathed out on a shuddering sigh. “Who can walk?”

“I can,” Minhyuk reported sadly, as if he felt guilty that he was the least out of sorts of them all. “I’ll get Hyungwon. I don’t think he’s really awake anymore.”

“I can walk too,” Jooheon checked in from where he was still lying against Wonho’s knee. “I need to take Changkyunie.”

Wonho refrained from arguing despite the fact that Changkyun didn’t seem to be injured physically while Jooheon was nursing some heavy wounds. Their maknae was damaged in a different way, still too young to have known how to put up the proper mental barriers against the ambushing vampires’ initial psychic attack, and was still in an obvious state of shock because of it. Having pulled himself out of it enough to attack his own Grand Sire hadn’t helped matters any, and seemed to have sent him right back into himself. It would probably be awhile before he was up to even speaking again; it was only natural that despite his injuries, Jooheon would want to take care of him.

Kihyun was kneeling in front of Wonho, blinking sluggishly at the ground. “I can walk,” he stated, but his voice slurred horribly and his eyes were unfocused.

Wonho nodded anyway. “Okay. Then can you help me? I don’t know if I can make it back on my own.”

They all knew that roughly translated to, _Neither of us are up for this, but maybe we can lean on each other and get home together._ It was the only real option they had. There wasn’t anybody else left to help, not unless they counted-

The air was heavy with a thick silence for a moment before Minhyuk finally asked the question that nobody else would. “And Shownu?”

Wonho swallowed back the bile that threatened to crawl out of his throat. “Leave him,” he croaked, fighting against every ounce of love he felt for his sire. He had to think of the others first. “If he wakes up normal, he’ll come back on his own.”

He hoped so anyway, but he couldn’t focus on that at the moment. Shownu, _their_ Shownu, would want Wonho to take care of the young ones. That was his job, to step up and fill in when Shownu couldn’t, to keep their coven alive and safe. They had all just risked themselves to ensure he could fulfill his duties; it was his turn to make certain their efforts hadn’t been wasted.

Slowly they all managed to lever themselves up off the ground, Wonho and Kihyun supporting each other, Jooheon leaning heavily on Changkyun in a way that also acted as an almost comforting hug, and Minhyuk managing to get Hyungwon to loosely cling to him in a piggyback hold. They all spared glances at Shownu as they passed, each of them noticing the way his head was rolling back and forth as he fought to regain consciousness, but none of them daring to stop to check on him. They didn’t want to see if those eyes opened amber. They didn’t want to shatter what was left of their hearts.

*******

It was nearly morning.

Shownu sat just at the edge of their property, staring at the old estate that had been his home for so very long. It was an odd building for Korea, a unique blend between Asian and European styles, built up with stone bricks and accented by arched entryways and twin tower columns on either side of the home, almost like a miniature castle. The slanted roof was built in the upturned Chinese pagoda style, however, with traditionally large overhangs to further shield the residence from the sun, the corners adorned by jade tiles and lined with roof charms in the shape of stunted dragons. If it hadn’t been so deeply hidden within the thick Gangwon forests, it probably would’ve become a favorite tourist attraction, curious visitors swarming in from every corner of the world to gawk at the mysterious home and wonder at its history.

After today, there weren’t too many people left who would be able to fill in the blanks on said estate’s cruel history.

Shownu moved to scrub a hand over his swollen face only to stop and stare at the dried blood that was crusting on his skin. All of it, every single drop, belonged to a member of his family, all of it his own blood in on one way or another. His demon just hadn’t been able to tell the difference between the blood of his family of old and that of his family of new. It had targeted them all.

He had nearly killed them. He’d killed the ambushing vampires, his brothers from his previous clan, ripped them to so many shreds, and had nearly done the same to his children. The only thought that had been running through his head at the time was the desire to drive every member of his former clan to extinction, a consuming need that somehow extended to include even his own line. If left to his own devices, he would have finished them all off and then probably ended himself in a frantic attempt to cut his bloodline out of the world once and for all.

It was the exact opposite of what his rational side wanted. He had meant to protect his current family. He had recognized his prior brothers’ empathic bloodrite the moment they let loose their mental attack, but had been too late to call out any warnings to his clan. All the enemy had needed was that one second of disorientation before they attacked physically, targeting Hyungwon first as their greatest threat. They had _known_ , had clearly researched the members of Shownu’s coven to figure out who needed to be dispatched first, and had planned their battle tactics accordingly.

Changkyun, the wildcard of the bunch, had been dropped immediately with the mental ambush. Hyungwon would’ve been torn down with swift efficiency had Shownu not reacted to the memories of his brothers’ personal weaknesses, targeting their own stronger fighters and tactical planners, throwing them for a slight loop; they still couldn’t seem to look at him as anything more than the dog he used to be, even despite any information that had told them otherwise.

His blood was already boiling hot in his veins by that point, the sight of Hyungwon lying on the ground, fighting for his life in a pool of his own blood nearly pushing Shownu over his limits of control. He had been so focused on shredding the vampires who had gone after Hyungwon that he hadn’t been paying attention to the second wave who went after Jooheon, the powerhouse of the group. It was when he’d cried out as they snapped his arm that Shownu’s rage took him over entirely, his hatred towards his prior family driving him into temporary insanity. They barely had a chance to go after the other three members of Shownu’s clan.

Now they were all dead, nothing more than so many pieces of flesh scattered amidst the leaves, leaving Shownu with no answer for his biggest question:

Why?

It was his driving thought at the moment. Why had the scattered members of his old clan banded back together, and why had they returned to attack Shownu’s peaceful coven? Had they wanted to reclaim the estate they had all once lived in under their Grand Sire’s rule? And where had they _been_ all this time? Shownu hadn’t even known they were still _alive_.

He thought briefly back to his older days and cringed at the memories. There had been a violent period after their Grand Sire had vanished when they’d fought for clan leadership, had killed one another inside the home and then took the fight far outside of it, chasing eachother around the country until there simply wasn’t anyone left, no one except Shownu. He had been glanced over as as the weakling slave, nothing but the previous sire’s mindless pet and therefore not a threat to any of them. They had all run off and left him alone, left him with nothing but his nightmares and an empty estate that he couldn’t bring himself to vacate despite the terrible memories it held for him. With very few memories of the person he had been before, without those nightmares and without that estate, he would’ve had nothing at all. He would’ve _been_ nothing.

But that had all changed. It had changed when he’d brought home Wonho and began to make new memories for himself, better ones, peaceful ones that wrapped themselves around him like a warm blanket on a cold winter night. Then the others had followed one by one, and not only served to help remind him what real humanity was, but gave him actual purpose again, a goal to erase the mistakes of his past sire, to go against the old ways of their kind and set a better example for the new generations. He wanted them to walk a path that would maybe one day end the outdated violence that was always so prevalent in the vampiric underworld.

Tonight, though, he had destroyed all of that. His past had come back to haunt him, to hurt him, and in the process it had hurt them all. There was no way they were going to recover from this; he’d ruined _everything_.

*******

“He’s outside,” Minhyuk mumbled softly against Changkyun’s chest as the of them rested on the youngest’s bed. “I should go get him.”

Changkyun merely hugged him tighter in response, and used a gentle hand to keep his head pressed against his body. It didn’t take any more pressure than that to make him stay; Minhyuk was simply too weak to fight against him at the moment.

It was so backwards, Changkyun having to be the one to take care of his elder. Everything was backwards, twisted up and flipped upside down, shaken so hard that it made his stomach turn. He couldn’t wrap his head around the blurred memory of Shownu attacking them, of himself charging back at him in part fury, part blind panic at the notion that Shownu might kill one of them. He barely remembered holding him down while Hyungwon beat him unconscious, and didn’t remember the trip home at all. He didn’t recall the gentle care Minhyuk had taken in patching them all up, nor lying down to offer them all his blood to help heal their wounds faster.

The clearest memory Changkyun had since being attacked in the woods was so dark and terrifying he wouldn’t even think it was was real if not for the fact that he was holding the evidence in his arms. He’d snapped out of his trance to the feel of Wonho latching onto him, fresh blood dripping from his lips, begging Changkyun to get Minhyuk out of there and sheltered away behind a locked door before they all killed him. Somehow, some impossible way, Minhyuk’s kind blood offering had ended in a violent feeding frenzy, the coven very nearly consuming him as if their Grand Sire’s bloodlust had suddenly worked its way down the line to all but their youngest, who had been too far in the depths of mental shock to participate in the madness.

As he shuddered at the thought, the negative, nagging part of Changkyun’s mind began to rear its ugly head, telling him it had told him so, that he knew this would happen someday; his perfectly flawed little family was falling apart on him just like he’d thought it would. Frustrated, he shook his head and pushed those thoughts aside, choosing to focus more on his mission, the most important mission Wonho had ever given him. Their second eldest had actually handed Changkyun his beloved protege to take care of, to protect, trusting that he was old enough and responsible enough now to take on such a heavy responsibility. That genuine, unadulterated trust was more than enough to give Changkyun hope that they hadn’t all abandoned one another just yet.

“Here, Minhyuk hyung, you need to drink some more,” he offered quietly, and held his wrist to his elder’s face. He pressed further when it seemed Minhyuk wouldn’t accept the offer, playing on his hyung’s current concerns. “Please? We can’t go get Shownu appa if you can’t even stand up.”

Relief flooded through him as Minhyuk nodded, seeing the logic behind his words, and carefully sunk his fangs into his arm for the second time since Changkyun had locked them into his room, taking a long pull from his vein. Minhyuk hadn’t wanted to at first, and it had taken Changkyun begging him with tear-filled eyes to convince him that it was okay to feed ‘from the baby.’ Minhyuk certainly needed it; he was a mess, his shirt soaked in blood that still oozed from long gashes caused by greedy fangs.

Changkyun still couldn’t fathom how that had happened. The others had practically torn him open as they’d tugged him in one direction or another between them. Changkyun could only assume their need for self preservation combined with the sweet taste of Minhyuk’s blood, coupled with sheer vampiric lust, simply proved too much for all of them to handle. The remaining adrenaline and fear and lingering need to just _fight_ leftover from the encounter in the woods probably still had their demon sides all on edge like it always seemed to do to Changkyun so soon after a battle. It had been stupid really for Minhyuk to offer himself to them like that and think that they would be capable of tempering themselves. If not for his sire’s protective side coming online and staving off the others long enough to allow Changkyun to pull him out of there, Minhyuk most likely would’ve been lost to them.

Overly trusting, sacrificial idiot. Changkyun fought the sudden urge to punch him; didn’t he understand that if he had let them drain him just so they could live, it would’ve broken them all apart even more?

“They would’ve stopped,” Minhyuk muttered, pulling away from Changkyun’s wrist long enough to tilt his head up at him. “They would’ve stopped before they killed me. Or they would’ve at least brought me back if they had.”

“Stop reading my thoughts,” Changkyun grunted in return and shoved his arm back in Minhyuk’s mouth. He mentally repeated the part about Minhyuk being an overly trusting idiot just to drive the point home. Playing chicken with a bunch of hyped-up, very injured vampires didn’t seem like the best way to go about figuring out where they actually stood behind their self control lines. If Shownu, as their eldest and most experienced, could so easily and thoroughly cross his, there was no telling what the rest of them were capable of doing to one another.

He didn’t even know where his _own_ lines were at the moment. He hadn’t been physically injured, at least not beyond a few bruises that had already faded, but even he had decided within the first few minutes of licking at Minhyuk’s wounds in order to help heal them that he needed to stop. His own mental state was still a mess from whatever it was that the ambushing vampires had done to him, his memories still trying to trudge their way out of the purple fog he’d temporarily been lost in. He had issues controlling his more violent impulses on a normal day; trying to do so when he was still having some trouble telling when five seconds had passed or five hours was asking a little too much of him. If he didn’t want to become a danger to Minhyuk himself, then the best thing he could do was to hope what little he’d already done was enough to help the wounds eventually seal on their own, and to keep giving him blood to replace what was still slowly being lost.

Momentarily caught up in his own head, he realized over the course of what had seemed like a single blink that he had jumped time again. He looked down to see that Minhyuk had fallen asleep against him, but apparently not before he had lapped the puncture wounds in his wrist clean. They were just puffy little scars now that would fade within short order if Changkyun wasn’t determined to reopen them the moment he thought Minhyuk needed it. Right now, though, the thing he needed most was the sleep he was finally getting, looking like a battered fallen angel tucked up against his chest.

Changkyun hugged him again and rested his head down on Minhyuk’s golden hair. _‘He’s okay,’_ he thought to send out to whoever might’ve still been awake and listening, probably worrying themselves sick if he still knew them like he hoped he did.

He felt Wonho’s immediate reply like a gentle caress inside his mind. _‘Thank you, Changkyun. Thank you.’_

*******

Hyungwon sat on the edge of his bed, head in his hands as sluggish tears dripped slowly to the floor. This was the second time he had cried that day. How could he cry twice in one day when it was such a rarity for him to shed tears more than twice in an entire _year?_

He pulled his hands away from his face and watched them shake in front of him. They’d been shaking since he’d gimped into his room and slammed the door against anyone who dared try to follow him. How could such long, delicate hands be responsible for so much violence against his own family? If he didn’t feel Shownu’s presence lingering somewhere outside, he might’ve thought he had beaten him to death. If he couldn’t feel the steady thrum of Minhyuk’s heartbeat from the end of the hall, he might’ve thought he’d played a critical role in tearing him to just so many useless shreds.

How? How had he lost himself to violence so far that he could so easily direct his fluid ability to kill towards his brother and his coven’s father? What was _happening_ to him? To all of them? How were they all falling apart so quickly?

A voice outside his door startled him, another testament to just how out of sorts he was. He generally didn’t startle easily.

“Hyungwon? I’m coming in.”

Kihyun.

Hyungwon ran one of his trembling hands under his nose as he sniffled back his tears, wiping his face with the corner of his blanket just in time for Kihyun to push the door open and make his way in. He got about halfway into the room before he lost his balance, his feet moving sideways to try to catch himself before he fell. Hyungwon was up in a flash to try to help him, remembering a little too late that he was in no shape to be running around. Tight stitches pulled at his skin and cracked ribs screamed out horribly as he tried and failed to catch Kihyun’s weight, both of them falling hard to the ground.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” Kihyun hissed as he rolled himself up and pressed a gentle hand to Hyungwon’s shoulder. “Hyungwon?”

Hyungwon stayed down for several seconds, face tucked into the carpet as he focused on taking in one breath after another until the pain eased up enough for him to speak. He turned his head and glared up at Kihyun. “Why are you in here? You can’t even walk straight.”

With a shrug, Kihyun reached up and gingerly touched at the back of his head. Minhyuk had done well with the stitchwork, but the injured area was going to stay swollen and tender for a little while, and his brain was so rattled from the impact with that damn tree that he couldn’t even see straight. He needed to be resting, not wandering around the estate stumbling into god knew what. But of course he was too damn stubborn to do what was best for him.

“Sorry,” Kihyun said again, looking as utterly despondent as Hyungwon felt. It was only then that Hyungwon noticed red rims around Kihyun’s eyes; he’d been crying, as well. That was almost funny to him, the thought of the two of them crying at the same time when it so very rarely happened with either one of them. Kihyun could get defensive and bitter on his bad days, but there were rarely ever tears involved. Now it seemed the two of them were channeling their more emotional kin, who were probably a complete wreck if the two of _them_ were this bad off.

“Help me up, ass,” Hyungwon grunted, trying to bring the mood back to more familiar grounds. “The floor hurts.”

It was a bit awkward, and far from the typical grace that both of them normally exhibited, but eventually Kihyun managed to get Hyungwon to his feet so they could stumble back over to the bed. Hyungwon eased back onto his pillows while Kihyun made himself comfortable beside him, both of them taking a moment to just breathe in the other’s company and center themselves.

Hyungwon sighed deeply as he stared at the ceiling, letting his mind wander over the events of the evening without slipping into the guilt and uncertainty he’d been plagued with before Kihyun had arrived. He was a loner by nature, always one who preferred enough distance to think for himself as opposed to being influenced by others, but even he needed to be grounded at times by the presence of a trustworthy friend beside him. It made it easier to tuck his feelings aside where they wouldn’t show through, allowing him to see situations with a little bit better clarity.

Almost unconsciously, he slid his hand up the mattress through the space that was between them until his fingers touched Kihyun’s, his expression remaining pensive as Kihyun’s hand folded around his.

“Maybe it was the mental blast,” he speculated, his brain running over the events of the fight again. “It was strong enough to throw us all off for a minute, strong enough to knock Changkyun out of the fight entirely. Maybe it lingered more than we thought it would in all of us.”

“Maybe,” Kihyun said sleepily, his eyelids drooping to half mast.

Hyungwon nodded to himself as if he was confirming his own theory. “That has to be it. We wouldn’t have lost control otherwise. We _never_ lose control like that, not with each other.”

“Hmm, probably,” Kihyun replied.

Hyungwon turned his head to look at him, knowing by the thick sound of Kihyun’s voice that he was already practically asleep and was just agreeing to whatever Hyungwon was saying to appease him. His eyes were all the way closed now, a peaceful look on his face that Hyungwon envied. If not for the concussion he would be just as worked up as the rest of them, clearly _had_ been if the evidence of his prior tears said anything, but he was simply too exhausted to feel much of anything for too long.

Still, Hyungwon took comfort in his presence, in the calm aura that surrounded him, in the way his politely agreeable words validated Hyungwon’s excuses. In that moment, with Kihyun slipping off to a painless sleep beside him, it was almost easy to believe that everything was going to be okay; and maybe it would be. He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but Hyungwon honestly didn’t know what he’d do with himself if it wasn’t.

He rolled onto his side and scooted down the mattress a little to account for Kihyun’s shorter height, closing the gap between them so he could tuck his head into Kihyun’s shoulder. He may have been the most “stable” one in the coven (at least according to the others), but that didn’t mean he didn’t draw his strength from them as well. At the moment he didn’t even want to be strong; he just wanted to let go of everything and find the calm in the center of the storm, and there was no better place to do that than right where he was, body pressed up against Kihyun’s, their intertwined hands moving slightly between them with the soft inhale and exhale of their breaths.

Hyungwon listened to the slow, steady rhythm that Kihyun’s heart was beating out for him, and marveled at the fact that it danced in time with that of Minhyuk’s down the hall, which in turn was synced with Changkyun’s. They were sleeping, all three of them, and if Hyungwon focused enough he knew he could slow his own rhythm down to match theirs. If they could still do that, if they were all still bonded so tightly that they could unconsciously line up their heartbeats even in their sleep, then everything really would be okay. He couldn’t allow himself to believe otherwise.

~~~~~~~

“Ya! Appa! You coming back in?” Jooheon called out as he traversed the small expanse of lawn that surrounded the estate, completely done with all the drama of the evening. His eyes darted up to the sky and the first glimpses of daylight that were beginning to show, seemingly more concerned about that than he was about approaching his senior who had been aiming to kill him only a few hours before. Somebody had to go get him though, and if nobody else would, then it was up to him.

Shownu kept his bloodied face turned down to the ground as he approached. “Go back inside, Jooheon.”

Naturally, he didn’t listen; Jooheon had a tendency to follow orders from his sire about as well as his own protege did with _him_ , which was almost never. Instead, he huffed out a frustrated sigh and strolled over to Shownu’s side, gingerly lowering himself to the ground where he could rest his splinted arm across his lap.

“You need to come back. Everyone’s a mess in there,” he admitted quietly but firmly as he carefully bumped shoulders with their Grand Sire. “I think Wonho might’ve busted everything he owns, including his stitches, and that was just he wouldn’t start busting up _us._ He should’ve, though. We deserved it after what we almost did.”

Shownu nodded solemnly, fully aware of what had happened behind those stone walls tonight. “Losing a protege and losing a sire are the two most painful experiences of a vampire’s life. It’s too much for someone as emotional as him to handle.”

“Then go _help_ him,” Jooheon insisted, “because he didn’t actually lose _anybody_. You need to go tell him that; you need to go tell everybody. It’s only been a few hours and we’re all falling apart without you.”

A dark look passed over Shownu’s eyes, and for a tense moment Jooheon thought maybe he was about to lose his cool again.

“It’s because-” Shownu spat out, then clamped his jaw shut tight. He pushed himself to his feet and paced in front of Jooheon a few times before he calmed himself down again. That was good. It meant he was back in control and Jooheon could relax a little. He wasn’t up for another physical altercation.

“You _have_ lost me,” Shownu stated. “That’s _why_ you’re falling apart. The threads that bind you all together, they’re woven between you, connecting you to one another in different ways, but they were _all_ connect to me. They centered on me. You cut out the Grand Sire in a coven and everything else unravels. I know. I lived through it.”

“But we didn’t-” Jooheon began to argue, not understanding why his sire was telling him this. They hadn’t cut him out, not even remotely. They were all in there _waiting_ for him.

“You _beat me_ ,” Shownu stressed. “All of you. You have to understand what that means. We are _not_ human. As much as I try to pretend like we are, to have us live like we are, we’re not. We’re animals, and the pack overran the alpha.”

He stopped his tirade, realizing his voice was rising in bitter anger as he was speaking. He shouldn’t have been explaining this now, not like this, not after it was too late to change anything. This was something he realized too late that he shouldn’t have kept secret from them, but he had just never imagined this would ever happen to him, to them, his loving family. He never imagined he would turn against them and that they would turn against him in return.

He ran his hand through his blood-crusted hair and made himself squat down in front of Jooheon, needing him to understand. “We’re animals,” he said again. “If one of you were to challenge me for leadership of the coven and defeated me, the threads would shift but would still remain together. If the leader falls in any other way, any way that doesn’t immediately put someone else in their place, the rest of the clan isn’t prepared to pick up the pieces.”

Jooheon furled his brows. “So what does that mean?”

“It means,” Shownu sighed, “you’re all vying for pack leadership right now and you don’t even know it. You think Wonho is supposed to step up just because he’s the next oldest, but that’s not how it works. You want to know why you attacked Minhyuk? Why you almost killed him? It’s because he was the strongest one among you at the time, the most healthy, which meant he would’ve been mostly likely to step up to fill in the hole you’re all feeling. As a unit, you subconsciously decided you didn’t want that, so you tore him down before he’d have that chance. Before long, you’ll start turning on one another too, until you either kill each other or accept one of you to hold your chains. _That’s_ how this works.”

Jooheon was shaking his head as he listened to his sire speak. No, that was wrong, that had to be wrong. There was no way they would all fight each other over something as stupid as the title of Grand Sire. That’s all it was, just a title, an invisible crown for a kingdom that nobody knew existed. It didn’t _matter_. They didn’t respect and love Shownu for _that_. They followed his lead because he had essentially birthed them all, had taken care of them, had been kind to them, supported them, kept them safe. There was nothing they could do that would make him want to hurt them; they felt secure under his guiding hand, still did despite what had happened.

“So maybe we’re animals,” he said, then locked eyes with Shownu, more defiance in them than he’d ever shown his sire before, “but you’ve taught us so many times that we can be _more_ than that, that we can fight the animal side. This is no different. We’re not your old coven. We’re stronger than that and you know it. You _created_ us to be stronger, so stop sulking and go back there and get your kids under control. I bet you everything we own that all of us will be glad to put our leashes back in your hands.”

Shownu took a long moment to think, and Jooheon could feel him slipping inside his mind, analyzing him, judging his words and trying to find the truths in them. He opened himself up further, opened his very soul for his sire to see, sharing with him everything that he felt, everything _they_ felt about their Grand Sire. There was only love there. Despite everything that had happened, there was only love. It was a pure emotion that even the worst of demons were still capable of feeling.

Shownu let out a little startled sound as the strength of it swarmed over him.

“Oh,” he breathed out, all the tension in his muscles flowing out of him at once. “I don’t deserve you guys. I don’t deserve any of you.”

Jooheon smirked. “Well, too bad. You’re stuck with us anyway. Now can we please go back inside before we fry? I don’t want to be down with a sunburn on top of a broken arm.”

Shownu finally nodded as he reached down a hand to help his protege to his feet and wrapped a gentle arm around his shoulders. He was stuck in an overwhelmed silence as he guided them to the door, not certain what to think of what Jooheon had just shown him. That kind of love, one given with such purity not only to him but to all of them, he couldn’t resist destroying it again. He had come too close to doing so already. With that in mind, before they could step inside he stopped walking, holding Jooheon back for a moment.

“Will you promise me something?” he asked softly, making it clear that he was channeling these words to Jooheon only, cutting everything off that the others might read.

“If you make me promise to kill you next time, that’s not going to happen,” Jooheon griped.

Shownu grabbed his arm. “You have to. One of you has to. Someone needs to officially take control. I won’t be responsible for you killing each other.”

“It’ll never happen,” Jooheon smiled, refusing to make the promise. “We’re your kids. You taught us better than that. Now that we know this is a potential issue, we’ll just rock-paper-scissors for it if we need to. It’ll be fine. Quit being so dramatic and go inside.”

He opened the door and pressed against Shownu’s back, nudging him back into his own home that he clearly no longer felt welcomed in. They would fix that though, he would see. They would show him how different from the other clans he had raised them to be.

~~~~~~~

Shownu was a little numb as he made his way up the stairs to the top floor where his and Wonho’s master suites sat side by side. He had felt so cut off sitting in the darkness outside, as alone as he had been in the days following his own sire’s fall. It was over for him, he _knew_ it was over for him, that he’d lost everything for a second time in his life; yet with just a few simple words from his young protege, he had felt his bonds beginning to snap strangely back into place.

Was it actually possible? Had he really done what he’d set out to do and set their coven on such a different course from every other coven out there that they were no longer bound by the biological rules of vampirism? As far as he knew, what was happening now was something that no one had thought could ever be real.

His kin had beaten him down, taken him off his proverbial throne. It was completely unheard of for a defeated Grand Sire to reclaim their position without another physical battle for leadership. If he wanted his kin back so badly, he should’ve been challenging them all, something he would never allow himself to do. They would forever despise him for it if he forcefully bullied his way back in, and would forever continue to fight him for the position until one of them eventually took him down permanently. That’s how it should’ve worked anyway, but his children? They were actually _asking_ him to come back, and he didn’t know what to make of it.

Just as he reached the top of the stairs, Jooheon following quietly behind acting as his usual pillar of support, he heard an anguished cry filter out from behind Wonho’s closed door followed by the sound of glass shattering. Shownu cringed. The mirror he knew his protege had just obliterated had been in the bloodline for at least three centuries.

“I’m...going to go check on Minhyuk and Changkyun,” Jooheon informed him and patted him on the shoulder. “Good luck with that.”

Shownu snorted. Sure, Jooheon could come out face him after he’d tried to kill them all, but he wouldn’t go help temper an emotional Wonho? That was so typical of him that it almost made the day seem like it was just a normal tick on their regular chaotic timeline. Maybe that _was_ all that would become of all this.

“Good luck getting Changkyun to let you in,” Shownu replied back, doing a little ribbing of his own. Having sensed everything that had gone down, he knew they both were in for a bit of a challenge. This next phase was all about rebuilding trust, something they’d all shattered that evening in one way or another.

After Jooheon had gone, Shownu picked his way down the hall on light steps until he stood in front of Wonho’s door. His hand was just reaching out for the knob when it opened all on its own, and the bleeding mess that was Wonho came charging out of it.

“You _asshole!”_ he screamed, pounding his fists into Shownu’s chest even as he buried his face into his ruined shirt. “How could you _do_ that me?”

Shownu bit his lip and swallowed down the lump in his throat that threatened to cut off his breath. “I didn’t mean to. I just...lost control.”

“No, not _that!”_ Wonho cried. “You think I didn’t hear you out there? You were going to leave! You were going to leave without saying a goddamn thing! You were going to walk away and leave us to deal with Minhyuk, and each other, and everything, and how were you even _thinking_ about that? Don’t you care how we feel at all?”

His voice broke horribly around his words, eventually leaving him with only the ability to sob into Shownu’s chest. Shownu internally kicked himself. He had been so wrong; god how had he been so wrong? It had been over a century since he’d survived the tragic end of his own coven. When was he going to learn that those old rules didn’t apply anymore, not with this clan? He’d been the one to teach them all how to break those rules, just as Jooheon had said, so why couldn’t he grasp the idea that they actually _would?_ He’d been so ready to just walk away and leave them all either for dead or to sort it out among themselves, too damn weak to stick around and watch the carnage he had created; but there wasn’t going to be any carnage at all. He was starting to understand that now. He’d almost abandoned them for nothing but his own fears.

“Shhh, Wonho, calm down. Try to calm down, okay?” he whispered softly as he rested his cheek on his protege’s head. When that didn’t seem to be working, he simply lifted him up into his strong arms and carried him back into his own suite where they could sit together on the bed. He’d seen the mess Wonho had made of his own; it wouldn’t be fit to sleep on ever again.

“You were going to leave,” Wonho choked out once they were settled onto Shownu’s blankets, still clinging to Shownu as if his life depended on it. “I almost k-killed my own child...and you were going to _leave!”_

“I know, I know, I’m sorry.” Shownu rubbed his hand up and down Wonho’s spine, the other hand buried deeply in his hair, holding him firm against his chest. True to Jooheon’s guess, the wound he had torn into Wonho’s shoulder was open and bleeding again, but it was no longer a potentially life-threatening concern. Minhyuk had done well in his doctoring; he’d done well with all of them.

“I’m here now. I’m back,” he continued, fighting back the tears that stung at his own eyes. “I was being an idiot. I know that now; it was a mistake I’ll never make again.”

“You shouldn’t have made it in the first place, you dumb fuck,” Wonho snarled. If the situation weren’t so serious, Shownu might have laughed. Wonho had never cursed so openly at him like this before, and it seemed like he wasn’t done yet. “Stupid piece of fucking shit! Trust goes both ways, you know? It hurts that you don’t trust us enough to think we wouldn’t forgive you.”

Shownu continued to hold onto Wonho tightly, hugging him, pouring every ounce of love into him that he could, hoping it at least scratched the surface of what he’d felt when Jooheon had shown it to _him_. “You’re right. You’re right, and I do. I do trust you. I just...got confused. But you’ll help me with that, won’t you? Just like you used to when it was just the two us? Remember? Remember how hard it was for me back then?”

“Yes,” Wonho sniffled, finally beginning to calm down.

“So you’ll help me then?” Shownu pressed, knowing it was better to be honest with what he was feeling. They had all just seen him at his worst. There was nothing left to hide from them anymore. “All of you, you’ll _need_ to help me, because I don’t actually know what happened out there. What I do know,” he dared to admit, almost afraid to say it out loud, “is that it won’t be the end of it. Those were _my_ brothers attacking us, and they aren’t done yet. I can feel it. I’ll need you guys to help me through whatever it is they decide to do next.”

Wonho shifted in his hold, squirming until he was able to push himself back and look into Shownu’s eyes. “I know, and they can’t have the house back,” he stated firmly, making Shownu fully aware of just how much Wonho had been listening in on his wandering thoughts even while throwing himself down an emotional well. “They can’t have you back, either. This is our home, and you belong to _us_ now. Whatever they want, they can’t have it.”

Shownu couldn’t find the right words to say in response to that, nothing that could express how touched he actually was not only by the possessive sentiment, but how readily accepting Wonho was of everything. The best he could do was to simply press Wonho back up against his chest and hold him, really more for his own comfort this time, relishing in the way he felt his tie with his protege solidify itself all over again. In fact, maybe it was even stronger than it was before.

The sound of careful, off-rhythm footsteps shuffling in had him looking up to see Hyungwon standing awkwardly in the room, looking more lost than Shownu had ever seen him. It only took him lifting an arm in invitation for Hyungwon to close the distance between them, crawling up onto the bed where he could be folded into both Wonho’s and Shownu’s embrace. He let out a soft, relieved sigh as his tie to Shownu also reconnected itself, setting his tilted world back on its axis.

“Hyungwon,” Shownu alerted softly after several minutes passed of him simply sending Hyungwon telepathic assurances that everything was going to be alright. He pulled the younger vampire back just far enough so he could touch their foreheads together before making a quiet request. “Can you take care of your sire for me? Patch him back up? I need to get the others in here. I think they need it. I think _I_ need it.”

After receiving Hyungwon’s silent approval, he went out in search of Kihyun first, finding the boy still caught in a deep sleep on Hyungwon’s bed. The second he lifted him up into his arms though, Kihyun locked his hands tightly behind Shownu’s neck. “Took you long enough,” he pouted, his scowl lost to the dazed look in his eyes. “You get a whole week for this, you know.”

Shownu winced. A whole week of Kihyun’s little revenge pranks. For a moment he thought about fleeing the estate all over again for his own safety, but quickly abandoned the thought as Kihyun nuzzled into his neck and promptly passed back out. His heart swelled as that bond also clicked back into place, and Shownu decided he could deal with a week of punishment. Lord knew he deserved it.

After he deposited Kihyun into his bed with Wonho and Hyungwon, he went down for the other three, seeing that Jooheon had in fact _not_ succeeded in getting into Changkyun’s room. Shownu was a little proud of that fact. Their maknae had been given an order to keep Minhyuk safe from them, and it seemed he was intent on following that order even with his own sire trying to gently coax him into opening the door. The kid would never fall for that potential Red Riding Hood trick. Changkyun might have been an emotional teen in vampire terms, but he was about as far from stupid as he could possibly get.

“I’ve got it,” Shownu stated, laying a hand on Jooheon’s shoulder. “Go up to my room with the others and relax. You’ve done enough already.”

They shared a smile between them before Jooheon left, and after sucking in a breath, Shownu skipped past any pleasantries and simply twisted the doorknob, breaking the lock clean apart. There were more important things that needed to be fixed at the moment than a lock.

As he stepped into the room he was met with the sight of Changkyun kneeling on the bed, hovering over Minhyuk in a way that turned his body into a human shield over the downed vamp, his teeth bared and ready for confrontation. He made a sound that fell somewhere between an angry cat’s hiss and a threatened dog’s growl. It was a noise that brooked no argument or fast movements, one that only came about when a vampire was teetering on the edge of losing control; but this time it was for all the right reasons. Wonho had been smart in trusting Minhyuk’s safety to their youngest.

Shownu stood still, hands raised, not realizing he’d taken the exact same stance that Minhyuk had in the woods against _him_ only hours before. He could’ve simply overpowered their youngest if he wanted to, but that wasn’t what this was about. If he wanted to fix all this, he needed Changkyun to actually trust him.

It was just lucky for him that the other person in the room already did. “Changkyunie, hey, it’s okay,” Minhyuk’s whispered voice filtered over from the bed. He reached up a hand and tugged at Changkyun’s shirt. “It’s Shownu. Don’t you recognize him? Appa’s back, _our_ appa, and he wasn’t the one who hurt me, remember? It’s okay. Look at him. He’s okay.”

One of Changkyun’s eyes twitched as he stared at Shownu, his gaze roaming up and down his Grand Sire’s posture, assessing the level of threat. Between Minhyuk’s reassurances and the sheer, harmless calm that Shownu was exuding, the young vampire’s wildly dilated pupils finally began to shrink back to a more natural state, and he came back to himself with a confused blink.

“Shownu hyung?” he asked, still wary, but with an uncertainty about what it was he was supposed to be wary about.

Shownu dropped his arms. “Yeah. I’m back. Really back. Do you believe me? Can you trust me to come over there? Can I check on our Minhyukie?”

Changkyun turned to look at Minhyuk who gave him a nod and an approving smile, finally prompting Changkyun to crawl out of the way. Shownu made sure to address him first, grabbing onto his arms and squeezing them firmly. He smiled easily at his youngest.

“You did good, Changkyun,” he praised with complete honesty. “I’m very proud of you. We all are. You know that, right?”

Changkyun simply let out a tired breath in response, his shoulders drooping. “Does that mean it’s over? Are we okay now?”

The sheer, pained exhaustion in his tone nearly broke Shownu’s heart in more pieces than it was already in. He hoped the boy would be able to put this behind him and not constantly be worried about a repeat offense. In as determined a voice as he could muster, Shownu promised him, “Yes. We’re okay. Everything’s going to be fine.”

Shownu wasn’t surprised when Changkyun practically melted into him, his arms wrapping around Shownu’s waist. He didn’t make any further sounds, didn’t cry, just stood for a long time until he felt the heavy weight of responsibility filter back to the person it was supposed to belong to. It was too much for such a young vampire, for such a young _man_ , and Shownu kept silently promising him that it wouldn’t happen again. As long as he was alive to prevent it, this would _never_ happen again.

“Okay,” Changkyun nodded, clueless as to how unusual his ready acceptance of all of this actually was. Out of all of them, he should’ve been swayed by his biological instincts the most; yet there he was, handing his proverbial leash right back to Shownu as if their fight had been nothing more than a petty argument. It was almost too overwhelming to think about, so Shownu decided to push the confusing thoughts aside for now. He could ponder over what it all meant later, after he made sure his kids were all taken care of.

With Changkyun now settled, Shownu laid a hand on his head for a second before he gently nudged him back and finally turned his attention to Minhyuk. The poor boy was a catastrophe in human form, looking like someone who had just barely managed to crawl away from a hungry lion’s den. Changkyun had clearly done what little he’d been able to do with the wounds, but it really wasn’t enough to help boost the healing process along very far; Shownu made a mental note that it was time to teach their maknae how to administer a proper stitch. He’d clearly proven today that he was more than capable of taking care of the rest of them just as much as they took care of him.

“Hey, Minhyukie,” Shownu greeted quietly as he knelt down beside the bed, guilt tearing up his insides. He hadn’t caused these injuries, but this was on him just the same, and he would spend the rest of his eternal life setting it right if he had to. “I’m going to pick you up, okay? Is that alright?”

Minhyuk nodded, that sweet smile of his still plastered on his face. “You’re taking me upstairs? With the others?”

“Yes. Are you comfortable with that?”

Shownu was fully prepared to stay right there and tend to his wounds on the spot if Minhyuk wanted him to, but he already knew what the answer would be without their resident ball of positive energy having to give it to him. Minhyuk loved his family, every one of them, and would forgive them anything. His smile only broadened at the prospect of being reunited with his brothers, his hands going up eagerly to reach for Shownu. The thread that tied them together seemed to be reaching out for him from his fingers as well, connecting the very instant they touched, completing the coven’s circuit and making all seven of them whole again. It made Shownu feel warmer inside than he thought he’d ever felt in his entire long life, including the times he’d spent with his beloved family back in his human years.

Minhyuk let out only the smallest of whimpers as Shownu slowly lifted him and cradled him against his chest, sending Changkyun ahead to make sure the others were ready to help patch everything up - literally. By the time he made his way back to his room, having taken careful, measured steps all the way up so as not to jostle his fragile cargo, they were all anxiously waiting for him, waiting to see with their own eyes what sort of damage they’d caused.

Wonho, re-stitched and sitting on the end of the bed with his head pressed against Hyungwon’s shoulder, hissed at the sight of his other protege and bit his lip against fresh tears. He spun around and crawled up next to Minhyuk as Shownu laid him gently on the bed, his hands immediately flittering over every area of skin that was safe to touch.

“Oh, my sweet baby, I’m so sorry,” he rattled out, his apology swallowed up as the others joined in with their own need to beg for forgiveness; everyone except for Kihyun who was still blissfully passed out on the far side of the king mattress.

“Guys,” Minhyuk chuckled breathily, his voice featherlight against their urgent chorus, but able to shush them all just the same. “I’m fine. It’s fine, okay? Band aids. Cuddles. And fix Shownu’s face. Then we’ll be good.”

Shownu barked out a surprised laugh at that, having forgotten what a mess he must’ve looked like himself. Hyungwon really had done a number on him; he was sure it must’ve looked like he was wearing a mask of solid blood. Not that anybody seemed to mind, blood being such an integral part of their livelihoods. Still, he was touched when the others pulled him down to the bed to kindly tend to his injuries as well, half of them working on Minhyuk, anyone else who was free and able working on him. It took some time, but eventually everybody was thoroughly cleaned up, patched up, dressed in fresh clothing, and ready to just sleep for possibly another century.

Shownu couldn’t sleep though. He tried to, but as he lay in the center of what equated to a vampire puppy pile, his mind still managed to fill with worry for his family. He wondered what would happen if - when - more of his old clan decided to return, if he would lose his control all over again. He wondered what would happen to the small group of vampires huddled around him if he didn’t make it out alive next time. Mostly, he wondered at the little itch that was tickling along the back of his neck like the tiniest tug of a spiderweb clinging obnoxiously to his flesh. What _was_ that?

His eyes snapped open with sudden clarity. How had he not sensed it before?

It was _her._ She was alive. His heartless, domineering sire was alive, and she was calling for him.

“Hey. What did I say?” Wonho whispered into his ear, his agile fingers sliding to Shownu’s neck where they easily brushed away the light remnants of his sire’s empathic touch. “You’re our’s. She won’t take you back. We’ll make sure of it.”

“She’s dangerous,” Shownu warned, real terror beginning to eat at his soul.

“Yeah, well, so are we.”

Even asleep, with one mind the rest of his children all hugged in tighter towards him, trapping him in their embrace. There was nothing more that he could possibly loathe than the thought of pitting them against the cruelty of his sire, but he knew now that nothing he could say would convince them to stay out of it. They were all in this whether he liked it or not. They were all ready to die for him. Together.

He prayed to god that whatever became of this, that _would_ _not_ happen. With the valuable lessons he’d learned form his own children today, he knew they were set not only to change the way that vampires behaved, but that one day they would possibly change the entire _world_ ; and if that happened, it would be a change for the better. If they could so thoroughly fight against a side of themselves that was pure demon, what could they do against the simpler evils of basic human nature? It was almost unfathomable to think about.

Shownu had vowed with each one of their births that he would keep them safe, but he knew it had been for selfish reasons back then, both for him and for the good of their coven. Now he realized with perfect clarity how important that vow actually was. Looking at them one by one, he silently made his promise all over again, but this time when he said he would do anything it took to keep them safe, he knew that without any shadow of a doubt he absolutely meant it. He would do whatever it took, even if it meant stepping down as leader if one of them commanded it of him, because he learned today that none of them were ever really his to begin with. He was _theirs,_ owned by all of them for as long as they would have him; and if his sire really wanted him back, she was about to be horrifically surprised by just how much of a challenge that was going to be. He _wasn’t_ hers. Not anymore.

_~Kkeut~_


End file.
